Monthly Archives: March 2014

The man in the picture above is Professor Carl Trueman. Carl teaches at Westminster Seminary. He is an insightful, brilliant, and funny writer. And courageous. He is about the only leader of consequence to write candidly about the ongoing saga of Mark Driscoll. Carl has graciously featured my own writing on the subject for which I am grateful.

I asked Carl to write a piece about the virtual silence of leaders on the Driscoll controversies and he speedily fulfilled my request:

There are not many similarities between Edwards and me, but one is there. Edwards would go out on horseback to think. While he was gone, he would jot notes on whatever paper he could find. These would then be attached inside his jacket.

I have no horse, but I do use a lot of paper. And I use will use about anything when thoughts come to mind: paper napkins, gas receipts, etc.

Above is an example from a couple of days ago. A gas receipt and a card from the gym were brought into service!

I am reading several books on culture to expand and refine some teaching notes. One book I’ve had, but never read is All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes by Kenneth Myers. It was written in 1989 so does not have anything to say about the Internet, but wisely addresses our American love affair with media and entertainment.

Myers cites Roger Shattuck’s work (The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I) to describe the four major features of the era we dub “The Sixties.”

They are: “the cult of childhood, which attacked education and society at large for introducing concern about self-control; the delight in humor, especially in the absurd; the confusion between reality and fantasy; and a preference for ambiguity over clarity.” (All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes, p. 109).

Those who know me know that I like to use memory aids (mnemonic devices) in order to recall various things. Years ago, I came up with the name “Gage” (pronounced/emphasized with a long a for the two “a” cities) to remember the five cities of the Phillistines.

This past Wednesday evening, I was reviewing various things and up came the five cities (Gath, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron) of the Phillistines. I laughed because the very next day I was having lunch with my dear friend Cliff Wilson, who is a pilot for Southwest. It turns out that Cliff’s son is named Gage (pictured below). Does he look like a Phillistine to you? I think not!